Slip Slidin' Away
by TaintedPerspective
Summary: Sally Jackson learned early on that you could not always get what you want.


Disclaimer: The following fanfiction is done for pure entertainment reasons. I am in no way affiliated with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, Rick Riordan, Hyperion Books publishing, or Paul Simon.

_Slip slidin' away  
Slip slidin' away  
You know the nearer your destination  
The more you're slip slidin' away_

_I know a man  
He came from my home town  
He wore his passion for his woman  
Like a thorny crown  
_

Sally giggled and curled her knees upward towards her chest. She would have never thought a few months ago that she would be here now, in her favorite place in the world, right next to her favorite person in the world. Of course, a few months ago she didn't know a whole lot about Greek Gods, let alone the fact they were not fictional. She bit her lip, her eyes squeezed shut tight and face buried in her lover's warm chest, breathing in the sweet scent of salt water and freedom. It was so drafty in this little cabin.

Poseidon chuckled at her giddiness and placed a soft kiss on the crown of Sally's head. He knew just how dangerous this could be, being with a human woman. If a demigod was born to him or his brothers, it could mean serious trouble for Olympus, as well as Earth. Not that he really believed any one of the Big Three's children could actually make it five years in the human world without being devoured by Hellhounds, anyway. Although he had heard rumors about Zeus having an affair… ah, but it was not the time to ponder that.

He grinned at the young woman that lay beside him as she adjusted the thin sheet around her torso.

_He said Dolores  
I live in fear.  
My love for you is so overpowering  
I'm afraid that I will disappear._

Poseidon smiled softly and leaned down. "I'm sorry," he murmured roughly at her ear.

Sally flinched away from his ticklish warm breath, digging her face further. "Hmm?" she replied, a bit dazed, "For what?"

"I'm afraid."

From below, Sally propped up her arm for better leverage. _This_ was unusual. She held the musty blanket to her naked breast tighter and furrowed her brow. Throughout the small hut, the bed creaked and echoed while the dark early morning hours ticked away.

"What do you mean? What's wrong?"

Poseidon wanted to say something truthful and frank, like, _Because I have to leave you regardless of my feelings for you, _or, _Because if and when you become pregnant, your child will be fresh meat to anything hungry in the vicinity, _but he knew doing that would only serve to prompt confusion and more questions.

Instead he smiled, emerald eyes crinkling and hugging his lover closer. He loved Sally, he really did – nobody could change his feeling to think otherwise.

"I love you."

Sally still looked confused and worried; it was such an odd reply. But seeing Poseidon beam like that, that grin that seemed to always melt all her troubles away, she tried to forget the world and just sighed in pleasure, content with leaning against the ancient wooden headboard to listen to the seagulls and watch the first beams of sunlight make their way through the beach cabin.

_I know a woman  
Became a wife  
These are the very words she uses  
To describe her life_

She was clad in white. Rented, cheaply made white, but white nevertheless.

The only company she had was the elegant, floor-length mirror in which she was gazing. No mother to fuss over her dress, no sister to nitpick at her hair, no bridesmaid to gush and tell her just how beautiful she looked.

No, this was not how she pictured her wedding at all. Her wedding was supposed to have flowers and people and _happiness._ She was supposed to walk down that aisle smiling, with her father beside her, and then be handed off to her husband, and then go off to some tropical remote island for her honeymoon and it everything was to be just _perfect._

That was how it was supposed to go. Not like this – not with a grand total of five people attending, including herself, priest and organist, and saying "I do" to this rude, foul man as well.

Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes and remembered her reasoning for going through with the entire situation. _It's for Percy,_ she thought, and repeated it over and over again like a mantra.

_It's for Percy, it's for Percy. I'm doing this for Percy._

To anybody else on Earth, it probably seemed preposterous. Her beloved son was barely two years old, and she loathed this man. How was getting married going to do her any good? How did she expect to raise a child and take care of that lazy jerk at the same time? Did she even realize the extent of her actions? She should just clutch her dress and dash out the door right now, and leave it all behind. Just forget any of it ever happened, and start down a new road of life.

_But it's for Percy,_ she argued with herself, _it doesn't matter what I think. It's for Percy._

Sally heard the opening notes of the wedding march, _her_ march, muffled by the door and grasped the handle. She blinked hard once more, refusing to let any tears drop.

At the end of the aisle was Gabriel, a sour expression of his face, standing slumped facing her next to the preacher, who gave her such a miniscule smile, she could have very well imagined it. But it looked compassionate, almost… pitying, like he knew she did not want this.

But she ignored him and the tears in her eyes and her fiancée's bad posture, and focused on the little boy in the front pew. He was wearing the best clothes that she could afford to buy, which consisted of khakis, a button up shirt and shabby Superman sneakers.

_For Percy. It's for Percy._

She mustered a strained smile and stepped forward, fingers in a death grip around the white silk roses.

_She said a good day  
Ain't got no rain _

"Mama, can I go outside today?"

Percy was four years old, and he sent his pleading sea green eyes up to his mother, so much like his fathers. Sally still hated the fact her five year old could stop her dead in her tracks sometimes at just a glace.

"Ple-ease?"

"Oh, sweetie," Sally heaved a sigh, "You know I don't like you going out alone." Gabriel was going to be home from the bar soon and the apartment was still a mess. Not that it usually wasn't a mess, though. _Too many monsters on the loose, _she reasoned as an afterthought.

Percy didn't look too down. "You can come with me! Please, Mama, please?"

His mother exhaled, dejected, but couldn't help it when the corners of her mouth furled upwards into a smile. Stubborn. Like his father.

"I have some things to mail," Sally said, collecting the bills on the kitchen table, "How 'bout you and me take a walk to the post office, hmm?"

The boy squealed in delight and hugged Sally's leg. She chuckled, brushing back his untidy hair and seizing her jacket.

"Get your shoes on and then we'll go."

"M'kay, Mama!"

_She said a bad day's when I lie in bed  
And think of things that might have been  
_

She felt dirty, and wrong. It went against her morals, to take this, this _abuse._ She despised saying it, but it was true, and it had worked. Her… _husband_ had wanted her quiet, and eventually she shut up. She just wished she had done it before his fists had connected with her cheeks.

Sally lay in bed shaking from the cold, as close to the edge of the bed and as far as possible from the slumbering, snoring lump that occupied the other half.

She'd been like that for a while, but it wasn't until the first few drops of rain pitter-pattered on the windowpane did her lip begin to shake and tears flood from behind her clenched eyelids. Biting her lip to hold back whimpers, Sally drew in a heavy breath, and began to reminisce.

It could've been different. So, so different than what was happening now. If only her parents hadn't boarded that plane that morning. If only her uncle hadn't become so ill at the wrong time. If only she hadn't gone to Montauk that weekend and met _him_.

It would be so, _so_ different.

But she couldn't contemplate those things right at the moment. This was her life now, and there was nothing she could do to change that.

_And I know a father  
Who had a son_

Percy's room was dark, dark and disorganized so that Sally had tripped over his haphazardly discarded book bag he must have thrown there when he got home earlier that day. The poor thing, expelled out of another school. She would've been home to greet him, she had even asked off for it, but some brainless little kid at the candy shop had eaten one too many free samples and upchucked them back up all over the floor, leaving Sally with the lengthy clean-up aftermath.

The mother gave a short sigh, and observed her snoozing son in his bed. His hair was tangled and mouth lolling open slightly, which made her want to giggle, but she kept silent. She was just so happy to see him back alive from another school year; she didn't want to rouse him from his adorable position. Besides, a growing boy needed his rest.

Sally soundlessly removed Percy's tennis shoes, thrust them aside to the floor, and pulled the sheet up over his chest. Leaning down to get a little closer, she tenderly brushed his messy bangs out of his eyes and whispered in his ear.

"Sleep tight, my precious one."

Then she dropped a small baggie of deep blue jelly beans on his nightstand and turned out of the room.

The woman smiled sadly and peeked back one last time before exiting the room and down the hall towards Gabriel's poker game, unknowingly leaving one other person in the room.

_He longed to tell him all the reasons  
For the things he'd done_

Poseidon stared.

That's all he thought he was capable of doing right now, at any rate. Staring.

He was an all powerful, eternal Greek God, Lord of the Sea, Storm Bringer, Earth Shaker. But all he could do was stare.

_He came a long way  
Just to explain_

His son was right there on that bed, right _in front_ of him, sleeping soundly away without a care in the world. His former lover had just stepped out that door. If Poseidon was being truthful with himself, he was a bit overwhelmed.

He had traveled to this apartment on a whim, on nothing more than a fleeting thought of how to occupy his time, although now he began to doubt if it was a wise choice.

What if he decided to, say, greet the woman? Or perhaps, (and even though Poseidon really doubted it) even speak to the boy? Poseidon knew the consequences; it was much too dangerous. If he did that, his brothers would surely find out, and then _boy _would he be in for it.

Perhaps Zeus was right and he was gradually going mad.

The God of the Sea stepped lightly towards Percy. He stopped at least a yard away from the bed, and swallowed, gaping at the little string of drool from between his parted lips. His son looked disheveled and unkempt, but he was loved and cared for. He could tell by Sally's little display only a minute before.

_He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping  
Then he turned around and headed home again_

He had no reason to worry about the child, and it wasn't like he could make visits like this often, but Poseidon felt eerie about departing from the shabby apartment. Like he was guilty for a crime he did not commit. It wasn't _his_ fault the kid had been born. Besides, he had high-tailed it out of there as soon as possible after that night, probably breaking Sally's heart in the process, but a better option than the alternative.

He furrowed his brows and made a mental note to try not to act on impulse again.

He licked his uncharacteristically dry lips once and reached down with one hand, ignoring the noise ringing from both downstairs and New York City's streets below. As he approached the snoozing boy, a million and one thoughts whizzed through his mind within a second, of what he could do, of what he should do, but most of all, what he wanted to do.

Poseidon had come to terms with the decision of forgetting about his son years ago. But now, strangely, he felt an urge to start over again, because in a way, he _was_ responsible for what had happened. The God of the Sea bent over, breathed in a deep breath, placed the gentlest of kisses on his son's forehead, and then exited back through the open window as nothing but sea breeze before another living soul could notice his company.

_You know the nearer your destination  
The more you're slip slidin' away_

**A/N: Song is called Slip Slidin' Away by Paul Simon. Not the greatest writing and kinda sad, but struck me as a cute idea. Comment about any typos you may see please! Reviews get free virtual cookies.**


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